Our Take On The Deepika-Farah Debate: Are Workout Videos What We Need Right Now?

Deepika Padukone has responded to Farah Khan slamming actors for posting exercise videos during the COVID19 pandemic. Defending her decision to journalist Rajeev Masand via a Hangouts interview, Deepika said that working out keeps Ranveer Singh and her going: “I know a lot of people have a problem with exercise videos that are going up…but to be honest, putting up exercise videos -- rather, exercising, not putting up videos -- it’s more about how you feel. It’s not really about how you look.”

The shaming of our coping mechanisms, be it posting cooking videos, exercising, or doing “useless” challenges, is something that many are calling unfair, because everyone has their own ways of dealing with this unprecedented situation. So, is this a fair defense on Deepika’s part, or is her stance coming from a place of privilege, when there are migrant labourers dying on the streets amid the lockdown?

Everyone has their own way of keeping sane, and for those with depression, exercising helps a lot

As everyone who keeps track of the entertainment industry in India might know by now, Deepika has been vocal about having depression. For those who don’t know, depression and anxiety during such a lockdown, when you have nothing to do, no one to see, and no way of stepping out, has a way of creeping in. Exercising is an excellent way of dealing with it (once you get down to it). It releases endorphins, or happy hormones, and elevates your mood.

So, it’s unfair to assume that posting workout videos is simply a vanity exercise on the parts of actors who want to show off their form. That said, we can also recognise our privilege in this pandemic, and how our self-isolation is a luxury.

We are all coping in our own ways, and no one should be shamed, but we can also acknowledge our privilege and use it better

A lot of things we took for granted--as people with homes and sufficient money to survive a month of no work-- are things we should now be realising are a privilege. Perhaps this is an opportunity for us to see how much we have to be thankful for, and give back to people who don’t have the same luxuries.

Yes, granted that everyone has their ways of coping, but celebrities posting photos of themselves sleeping due to boredom, using beauty tools worth a few thousand rupees, or exercising in their big personal gyms to deal with self-isolation comes from a really privileged place.

In this country, not everyone even can self-isolate, let alone have the luxury to do the things they're doing. Given that, it’s not entirely unfair to call a lot of celebrity content, such as Amrita Arora’s picture of her girlfriends snoozing in self-isolation, tone-deaf. To quote the classics, “There’s people dying, Kim!”

Celebrities have a huge platform they can use to help the voiceless, so why not do that?

We know it isn’t easy for celebrities to voice their opinions on “controversial” or “political” topics, but since they do it when a movie is about to come out, why not do it now as well, when people need their help? Everyone can see the gut-wrenching images of the hoards of migrant workers trying to leave cities on foot, and how they are being treated. A tweet or two to interject the workout videos, surely, is the least we can ask of those with large followings?

Deepika herself talked about the importance of understanding the responsibility that comes with influence in her interview with Anupama Chopra, where she joined Parvathy in slamming Kabir Singh. We were all very impressed by her solidarity with the brutalisation of students in JNU. So why can’t Bollywood step up and use the sway WE have given them to help those who don’t have the wealth or voice to draw attention to what is happening to them? Shouldn’t those with influence in Bollywood, not only Deepika, but also Aamir Khan, the Bachchans, Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, or Shah Rukh Khan, could use their platform to draw more attention to the way the lockdown is affecting the voiceless poor in the country?

The situation as it stands right now, is simply a live demonstration of the class divide in this country as shown via social media. But, if we can learn from it, and understand how much we are buffered against such situations because of our privilege, perhaps it can become a movement where we help those less advantaged.

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